Traditional Credit Experience
The Osusu credit system is a group saving scheme that enables participants receive substantial amounts of money to meet planned heavy expenditure commitments. Each member of the group agrees to make a stipulated amount of savings into a pool at set intervals. The amount collected is in turn disbursed to a member of the group and this process continues until members of the group receive amounts equal to the contributions they made. The cycle of savings and payments is repeated until at such time the group decides to discontinue the scheme. This has been largely replaced by loans available at bank and microfinance institutions.

Overall, the financial sector is a bit developed compared to the nineties down wards. The number of lenders, scale of lending and the capacity of lending institutions is comparatively stronger, backed with the ability and willingness to lend outside the western area is very strong although the availability of training to strengthen such institutions is minimal.

Signs, Signs, Everywhere...Offices Closed

One of the biggest challenges I knew I would face with the internship program was the placement of interns with local organizations. Inexperienced students are primarily seen as a liability in any professional work environment but I also knew that offering to pay the student’s stipend would remove some of the anti-intern feeling. I also found that many of the NGOs were accustomed to having interns from different departments at the university. I drafted a general letter in which I stated the general idea of the internship, a description of sierra visions and the citizen media portion of the Rising Voices Grant. Based on intern interests as indicated in their essays, I began searching for organizations that had ongoing projects on which I could place the interns. I made an appointment with the Commissioner of the National Commission for Social Action (NACSA) so that I could get a list of possible NGOs to place interns with.





The Commissioner directed me to the Peace & Development Corps (PADCO), a national volunteering program placing recent college graduates to work with local district councils all over the country. I met with them several times with the goal of them providing me with a list of NGOs that I could send interns to. I never did get the list I wanted so I had to return to the internet in search of local NGOs. I also began to pay close attention to signs on the streets indicating offices….what I learnt was that there are many no longer existing NGOs with signs all Freetown pointing to non existing offices. I made visits to several offices that had been closed for over two or three years and no one had bothered to put down the sign.

I sent letters to several organizations including Handicap International’s National Rehabilitation Center (where they make prosthetic limbs for victims of the war), the Center for Victim’s of Torture, the Cotton Tree Foundation, the National AIDS Secretariat, the Campaign for Good Governance, NACSA, Finance Salone, AccessPoint Africa (an IT company), the Talking Drum Studio, and the Mano River Women’s Peace Network (MARWOPNET). At most of these organizations except for Finance Salone, I was able to speak to someone who assured me that they would get back to me on the issue. I never heard back from Handicap International, or the Campaign for Good Governance despite attempts to follow up. Finance Salone refused to accept an intern and said they’d have opportunities for an intern in January.

Abdul Konomanyi was placed with AccessPointAfrica. Sahr Joseph was placed with NACSA’s Peace and Development Corps. Moses Brima and Alpha Bangura were placed with the Cotton Tree Foundation…Moses was placed in Lunsar on an agricultural program on the cultivation of ginger by local farmers while Alpha was placed in Freetown on an Education Program. Edward Chaka our premed student was placed with the National AID Secretariat at Caunnaught Hospital, Kadie Kandeh was placed with MARWOPNET, Didan Sankoh was placed with the Talking Drum Studio but has subsequently dropped out of the program due to personal reasons. Noah Suluku and Daniella Wilson were placed on independent projects to highlight the lives of street children in different areas of the city, Noah Dauda and Alhassan Conteh paired up to research the implementation of micro finance in Freetown, and finally Sumaila and Abdul Jamal paired up to tackle with the environment. Of the fourteen students chosen for the program one of them could not be placed.

STREET CHILDREN

STREET CHILDREN PROJECT

I am Noah Suluku working as intern for think build change salone (T,B,C,S).I started this internship program as child activist for about two and half months ago.

The interaction with my fallows interns and the coordinator of (T, B, C, S)make me to be more authorative in critical thinking,awareness,friendship and tolerance on vital issues such as child adovcay,human right abuse and on environmental concern or recent health problem like HIV and AIDS.
This unique sharing experience with other less fortunate children and disable as well trust and life skill are gained which enable them to reclaimed their potential as productive citizen.Basically,I always wanted to be a child activist in other to speak for the under privilege children, because in the community that I find myself I saw a lot of children roaming the street of Freetown looking for old car batteries, coppers and metal to earn their living. My project which is street children, I started it initially to look into what is causing the high influx of street children in the country. Perhaps one would say the problem is traced from the ten year civil war we had in sierra Leone were children lost their parent and families members. And the other factor was that their parents inability to provide their spouse with basic necessity of life

Nevertheless “According to research in sierra Leone there are two categories. The first category is defined as children who stay with their parents /guardians at home but who go on to the street each morning to socialize or to earn money for themselves and sometime they return home in the evening. The second category is children who have abandoned their home and are permently on the street living and working on the street. They are not under any parental care.
Both categories are vulnerable to child abuse and child right violation. It is impossible to give a definite number of street children in sierra Leone as there are not been an official collated record of street children in the country to date”. My project is basically situated along the following localities,kroobay,Bus station, Dumping site(Bomel)and Mabela community center respectively.
During my research in this above mention communities there is a lot of street children’s.Sinces the areas are under developed the children are not expose to certain facilities so they have to go in search for food from one place to another.
There is less or no infrastructural development were the children can socialize into some skill training and the environment that they live in serve as environmental hazards to them, no proper schooling for them so they engaged themselves into stealing, drugs taking and grumbling.
Furthermore, the few who managed to find themselves in to schools they have been driving out of school because of corporal punishment and some cannot afford to pay there fees.
Moreover, we have a lot of child agencies in sierra Leone but what are they actually doing the children in the street are suffering.
I normally hear people saying” the children are the future leaders of torrow”.But what are they doing in other for the children to achieved this dream.
THE VOICE OF SOME STREET CHILDERN IN SIERRA LEONE.
I was staying with my parents in kono where was separated from them when the town was attacked by the Revolutionary United Front(R U F )rebel. I fled with a large convey of people to Freetown where I am now staying in the street as I cannot hear any information about my family whereabouts.
16 year old street boy (name with held)
My parent cannot sent me to school so I have to sell charcoal to feed the house(7year old street boy name with held)
My parent are all death so I did not have anybody to sent me to school, so I have to do hard job to survive.(10 year old street girl)
COMMENTS
.

In my own words or phrase what is happening to the children in the street I will it “

NON COMPOS MENTIS MANNER”

The following photo’s will show you the kind of children am dealing with.

Microfinance Implementation Assement in Sierra Leone

Sierra Leone is a country situated in the western part of Africa, with an average population of five million in which Women and youth formed greater proportion.

The country emerges from an eleven-year civil war. Following the declaration of the war being over, was a spontaneous returned of people to their home towns and villages with absolutely northing to start life with. For this reason, the initiative of microfinance implementation was both timely and practical way to help people rebuild and enhance their earning capacity.

Despite the severe suffrage on Sierra Leonean society, the sense of mutual obligation and support within extended families and the obligation to share, remains powerful. These realities of pervasive and acute poverty and a widespread determination to assure more than individual survival and gain must be understood for a micro-lending programme is to succeed since they represent countervailing pressures toward capital accumulation and dispersal of resources often for non-productive purposes.

Sierra Leone has experienced a high rate of failure of developmental projects over years. These failures did not begin with the onset of civil war. It must be noted that, the near absence of development for many years, declining per capita incomes, increasing competition from a rising population for limited resources and poor governance have contributed greatly to the erosion of civil society and the emergence of conditions that facilitated open conflict. It is this reality that the past government has been trying to combat with its National Action Plan for Poverty Alleviation, its programme of macro-economic reform supported by international development agencies and its policies of support for the private sector.

It should be noted that the flourishing of women's associations, their visible role in public decision and their pivotal role in ensuring good governance and viable economy give courage to those who believe Sierra Leone can heal herself and develop its economy and society.

HIV IS A VIRUS NOT A MORAL ISSUE;

I’m Edward K Chaka, an intern from sierra visions. I am 23 years old, a premed student of College of Medicine and Allied Health Sciences (COMAHS) university of Sierra Leone.

HIV IS A VIRUS NOT A MORAL ISSUE.

I started working on the 11th September 2007 for the NATIONAL HIV/AIDS CONTROL PROGRAMME (NACP) under the VCCT (voluntary confidential counseling and testing), ART (antiretroviral therapy) and PMTCT (prevention of mother-to-child transmission) at Connaught hospital, Freetown.
I’m working under the supervision of both the VCCT/ART and PMTCT co-ordinators.

BE CAREFUL
HIV TODAY
AIDS TOMORROW

I was placed at the reception on the first day. At the reception you receive patient and direct them to the Doctor’s office if the patient want to see a Doctor or if the patient is for drugs, he/she will be directed to the ART room. If a patient comes for a VCCT test, he/she will be sent to the VCCT room.

All patient on ARV (antiretroviral) drugs has a card with a number (code) corresponding to his/her file. At the reception, you collect the card from the patient, enter his/her particulars in the ledger and then search for his/her file and placed it on the Doctor’s desk if the patient want to see a doctor. Some patient only come to collect their drugs supply, they don’t need to see a Doctor so they will go straight to the ART room. Also there are people coming for voluntary testing, you send then to the VCCT room for counseling and testing

The Programme manager strongly advice me that nobody have a right to disclose someone HIV/AIDS status to any body unless the person wishes to do so.
I worked at the reception for three days. It was a wonderful experience.

CHILDERN
AVOID AIDS
SAY NO TO SEX

On the 14th September, I was taken to the VCCT room where they do pre-counseling before testing.
VCCT is a process by which a person willingly offers him/herself to be tested after a confidential counseling.

This process enables individuals to examine their knowledge and behavior in relation to their personal risk of acquiring or transmitting HIV (the virus that causes AIDS). It also helps the individual to decide whether or not they should be tested and provides individual support when they received their HIV status
Furthermore, it will help you know and cope with your HIV status.
VCCT can only be undertaking with the informed consent of the individual. VCCT test can be treated with the utmost. Everybody can be volunteer but no body should be forced. Even a minor’s consent has to be sought before an HIV test can be down. No payment is required for VCCT services…….

GO FOR YOUR HIV TEST TODAY
HIV TEST IS FREE
IT IS CONFIDENTIAL

PROCEDURE FOR HIV TESTING.

First you introduce yourself to the client and tell the client that he/she has been referred for HIV test. Tell him/her what is HIV, the means by which people get infected, what the virus does to you when you become infected, what are some of the signs and symptoms and treatment. You fill in the consent form by entering the following details; code, age, sex, marital status, marriage type, occupation, client’s address, client attitude, counselor’s name and signature, client name and signature and date.

Remove the test device from the foil pouch; place it on a flat, dry surface. a sterile lancet is use to piece the fingertip and then applied the blood on the determine strip and a drop of chase buffer(to speed up the reaction),and a drop of blood also on the SD Bio Line sample well (standard diagnostic) and a four drops of assay diluent in to the sample well. As the test begins to work, you will see a purple color move across the result window in the centre of the device. The result should be read and interpret test result in 5 to 20 min. test result should not be read after 20 min,reading too late can give false results.

YOU CAN SAVE LIVES WHEN YOU KNOW YOUR HIV STATUS


INTERPRETATION OF RESULT:
A color band will appear in the left section of the result window to show that the test is working properly. The band is a control line marked C. Another color bands will appear in the middle and right section of the result window. These bands are test line 2 and test line 1 (2 , 1).

The presence of only control line C within the result window indicates a negative result (-ve).

The presence of two lines as control line C and test line 1 within the result window indicate a positive result (+ve) for HIV – 1.

The presence of two lines as a control line C and test line 2 within the result window indicate a positive (+ve) result for HIV – 2

The presence of three lines as control line C, test line 1 and test line 2 within the result window indicates a positive (+ve) result for HIV – 1 and HIV 2.

If the color intensity of the test line 1 is darker than one of test line 2 in the result window you can interpret the result as HIV-1 positive. Also if that of test line 2 is darker than one of test line 1 in the result window, you can interpret the result as HIV-2 positive.

No presence of control line C within the result window indicates an invalid result. The direction may not have been followed correctly or the test may have deteriorated. It is recommended that the specimen be re-tested.

Although a positive result for HIV 1 and HIV 2 in one patient is a rare case, it’s possible as there is a homology in the amino acid sequence between HIV 1 and HIV 2. to determine the virus type or diagnose a co-infection accurately, you must perform a confirmatory test.

After the interpretation of the result, either negative or positiv,you fill in the laboratory result form if it is a referred case which the patient has to take to his/her Doctor. If the patient comes for a voluntary test, there is no need to fill the lab result form.

Heterosexual transmission remains the dominant mode of transmission and account for about 85% of all HIV-1 infections. A defining feature of the pandemic in the current decade is the increasing burden of HIV-1 infection in women, which has additional implications for mother-to-child transmission. HIV-1 infection rates are three to six times higher in female adolescents than in their male counterparts. This difference is attributed to sexual coupling patterns of young women with older men, hence a quarter of all new HIV 1 infections are in adults aged younger than 25 years. Population prevalence of HIV 1 infection, concurrent sexual relationships, partner change, sexual pratices, the presences of other sexually transmitted dieases, and population mobility patterns for economic and other reasons (e.g. natural disasters and wars) further increases the probability of HIV 1 acquisition.

LET’S USE CONDOM TO PROTECT OURSELVES FROM
HIV/AIDS.
I CARE FOR MY LIFE AND YOURS TOO

Noah Suluku Presents: The Children of Bay

Internship at Peace and Development corp(NaCSA)

About NaCSA and PADCO
Natinal commission for social action (NaCSA) is a national commission programe that work with donors that channel funds that support reconstruction and development effort through three project windows:
1) Community driven Programme
2) Public works programme
3) Micro finance programme
Under the public works programme falls the Peace and development corp(PADCO) programeWhich is aimed at providing employment for young university graduate by providing them an opportunity to gain experience and skills that will prepare them for future employment. The university graduate work as volunteer in Rural communities helping local council in building their capacities for a period of one or two years depending on funding.

*****My role as an intern with the Peace and Developnment Corp(PADCO)

Upon my placement with PADCO my terms of reference where to:
=To help Put together a documentary on the volunteers work at placement for three target audience:a) potential Donors b) Potential volunteetrs C) and NaCSA staff
=To help in developing module for the volunteers mid-term exchange workshop
=To help in developing module for a volunteer management handbook
=To assist in all other official duties.
=To help in arranging all Volunteer involving organisation meetings and activities
*****Terms of Reference review*****

Mid term Learning Exchange workshop
I work together with my supervisor in putting together all modules for the workshop and also facilitated at all three days running workshops
Day 1 I facilitated on Impact made by PADCO volunteer
Day 2 I facilitated on HIV/AIDS
Day 3 I facilitated on Volunteerism in Sierra Leone

Volunteer Management hand book
I develop modules for the hand book and suggested them to my supervisor for review which has to be done later after my internship stay and the book will be use to manage PADCO activities with the next cohort

Volunteer involving organization
I attended all meetings for which PADCO is to be present and I was singly appointed to represent PADCO at sub-committee meeting like the VIO radio committee and the University repainting committee

Documentary
I develop the script for the documentary and also travel through out the country to 10 districts to conduct interview with PADCO volunteers in order to produce the film with the help of my IEC mentor and my immediate supervisor and full support from Sierra Vision(In terms of advice, support and equipment.)

PADCO office activities
I work extensively and tirelessly with my supervisor to ensure official work are ongoing and I learn a lot of skills in Volunteer management.

Experience gain
I learned a lot of skills from my internship coordinator in terms of personal attitude, relationship and work experience.

From my PADCO supervisor I develop skills in organizational volunteer management

From colleagues I got more friends and develop relationship and build on accepting others in terms of opinion, views and values and accepting them for what the believe in.

Overall the internship period has being a learning period and a challenging experience good for all tertiary student in the country as such enhance career development and national development.

Relationship and experience gain during the period is good for the future of Sierra Leone

Advice to sierra Leonean and potential internWe all have to think in order to build salone and such can only be the means of ensuring change where attitudes should be oriented to positivism and love for our country. The internship program is a good step to development.

Next steps
Information and technology knowledge is actually low in the country as stated by siera Vision president i would recommend if donors agree to fund them let the organisation provides information and technology training for student in the various university by organising free citizen media workshop for student in the variouse university and also organising educative programme that will enhance technology capacity of the student.